Recently, the first season of the television comedy, 'Little Britain' aired on Australian television, (it had already run I think it was two seasons in England) whilst it was an instant sucess and I adore it I thought that perhaps the creators went a little too far in some of the scenes that they did.

I wonder if anyone else has seen the show and what they thought of it... Also, it happens to be rated M so try and keep some of the more 'for older people' ones away from it.

I hope that makes sense...

I haven't actually seen it, to be honest, but from the trailers and the interviews I've seen, I wouldn't want to. I have a pretty wacky and hopefully good sense of humour, (at least I think I do) but this is pushing the limits a little, even for me....I don't find making fun of people in wheelchairs particularly amusing...neither do I find stereotyping gays funny when these people have struggled for so long to gain some level of acceptance within society.

I dunno...it might by hysterical, but I really wouldn't want to give it that chance. It seems a little sick to me.

I have unfortunatily seen little Britain on a few occasions and have to say it is the worst sketch show i have ever seen. Not only does it use annoying stereotypes, but it is extremely repetitive, the characters do the same thing in every sketch and are in more or less the same scenarios.
There are much better British sketch shows out there like Harry Enfield, Trigger Happy Tv and of course the excellent Flying Circus.

I think Little Britian is really funny. I havn't missed an episode of it. It's funny how the person in the wheelchair isn't really disabled but he tricking the world into thinking he is. I wouldn't say anything is offensive about it.

I like it so much, I even bought the first series on DVD!

I find some sketches funny occasionaly. But they tire quickly. Other comedys in the past have been alot better.

The sketches are funny and True. I cant see how people from the usa would take it or even know what its going on about half the time. But never mind i think its funny

Ditto. Although I have to admit to finding the 'only gay in the village' thing slightly amusing when I first watched it, it would rapidly get very tedious. I also thought the disabled guy who wasn't really disabled was something of a quip at disabled people in general - like they make their conditions worse than they are because they think they're gaining something out of it or because they're looking for sympathy or something. I just really don't like humour that takes the mick from people who can't help what they are or who are in the minority for whatever reason. It's really in bad taste, IMHO.....but for those who like it, great for you. Whatever floats your boat. It just doesn't particularly do it for me, that's all.

I agree with you that there are some people who clam for the most frivolous of reasons, like slipping on ice on a public path.

But this is no reason for damming all disabled people. I fail to see your liken between people who make false claims and disabled people.
Little Britain shows a clip of an 'apparently' disabled person pretending to be disabled just to take advantage of his carer. As a Carer I have to ask the question, When does this ever happen In real life?

I fail to see the truth or hummer in this particular sketch.

I have to admit I’ve never seen the racism sketch, but to go back to the gay one, it suggests that this particular gay person is choosing to be gay, just to be different and his society is bending over backwards to accept him but he still 'chooses' to be gay because this makes him different from everyone else.

Where’s the truth in that?

when’s the last time you saw two men or women walking down the street holding hands?
Homosexual relationships are still not widely accepted in British (or Irish) society by any stretch of the imagination.
I still think little Britain is poking fun at particular groups in society. Maybe I’m just getting old but I fail to see the hummer in Little Britain.

i have never seen or heard of little britain (maybe cause i'm from the states) but i've been wondering what a sketch is? is that another word for an episode?

i danno, maybe i'm just being stupid

Erm....it's sort of difficult to explain. Little Britain is sort of like Saturday Night Live or In Living Colour (you guys remember that show? Jim Carrey started out on it, a long time ago)....they were sketch shows too. You know like the Hogwarts mickey-take SNL did a while ago? The one with Lindsay Lohen (sp?) in? That would be a sketch....it's not really an episode. It's like lots of little mini, stand alone stories in one episode.

God, that doesn't even make sense to me, so I doubt it's going to do much for you!

Maybe someone who's a bit more literate than me can do a better job...

It's a 00's version of the fast show with less depth. The fast show was continually funny throughout it's time where as I see Little Britain dying hard and fast once all these award ceremonys are finished with.

SNL is vaguely similar in terms of taking the mick out of sterotypes. But Little Britian is definetly a British humour type show, I doubt you'd even find it funny if you live in anyother country.

I didn't mean to draw parallels between SNL and Little Britain in terms of style or content - SNL is funny, for a start.... I just meant that they're both sketch-type shows...you know....

But yeah, you're probably right...I guess you would have to live here to understand a lot of the subtle little digs. I mean, I've watched shows like David Letterman and Jay Leno and while a lot of the stuff is funny, a lot of it just flies straight over my head, because you have to live in US to understand what they're on about.

I guess it's a cultural thing, I dunno....or maybe I'm just thick...

sorry for digressing from Little Britain, but I was watching David Letterman the last couple of nights on ITV2. You just reminded me the fact that many of his humour pauses and interactions with the guest go over my head too. One minute I find him really funny, the next I can't work out why they don't just get on with the interview... Maybe it's because it's shown at about 01:30 in the morning and i'm just tired or something.


Side note:
Anyone seen the Jim Carrey "Ice Ice Baby" scetch on SNL? If not go download it from regular file sources, it's very funny and quite impressive.

Oh NOW i know what a sketch is . Thanks. And ya, i probobly wouldn't have any idea what Little Britain is going on about if i'd seen it... it's so weird how living in a different country changes everything. all the pop culture references are different and all that...

i guess it's not too weird...just strange.

LMAO!!! You know, I've just been looking back at some of the posts I made in this thread and I can't believe what an idiot I was for not giving this show more of a chance when it first came out!

Talk about 180 degree turns!!

I can't tell you how much I absolutely love this show...it's become something of an obsession lately, actually... Might have something to do with the fact that I find David Walliams insanely sexy, but anyway...

I treated myself to the season two DVD this week and it's got to be the best 14 quid I've spent in a while - it's hysterical! Or maybe my sense of humour has gotten much sicker over the past few months

And I am *totally* stoked that I've managed to get hold of tickets for the live show!! You wouldn't believe how fast these shows sell out and I was totally chuffed to pieces when they added a couple of extra dates in February. Practically front row tickets too!! *dances happily*

Oh, David Walliams....in the flesh.....*sigh*

Okay...squeeing fit over... Just had to share..

i Must admit Dana, when i first saw a clip from Little Britain (Vicky Pollard in the classroom) i was like 'Eh?' (how i didn't know how important that little noise would be for my life ) What's this? so not funny!

Then i saw a whole eppisode and i was in stiches. What makes it so funny is that it's suach a massive (and i mean massive) Exagheration from the truth, the Vicky Pollad especially. I just love Tom Baker the narrator the best it's so funny!!

'Those are busses, but anyway...'

I just got the 2nd seris and i was crying of laughter at some parts. It's definatley the best thing since Chris Morris 'the day today' (does anyone remember that?)

'Computer says no...*cough*' lol!

'Bitty...'

Yeah, what is it david walliams? He's just one of those weird crushed you have...like Jack Black.

I think we all know our Vicky Pollards

I love sebastian and the Prme Minister too, i squealed when he finally got a snog, the PM's face afterward ROFL

I think my favourite is Anne, 'Eh eh eh!' i mean, wow! It was after seeing that sketch that i just fell in love with it.

'Britain, Britain, Britain. We've had running water for over ten years, we have a tunnel connecting us to Peru, and we invented the cat.' aww makes me smile.

I can see why people don't like it, it is a love or loathe show (like Marmite--eww--)

Hey, did you notice Christian Coulson in episode...erm...three, I think it was...the one with Bernard Chumley? He goes to Bernard and asks him for funding to go to acting school? LMAO!!! Tom Riddle has never looked so hot!! I really hope they bring him back for HBP, you know...he's grown into quite the looker.

Did you see David and Matt on Parky the other night? OMG, I couldn't believe the way David was flirting with Wil Young! I was nearly on the floor, I tell you! Oh, he does like to confuse people about his sexuality, doesn't he?

And they're on the National Television Awards on Tuesday too. Ooh, David overload...*sighs contentedly*

oh i know!!! I recognised him so much i was tearing my hair out. 'Hmmm, Gael Garcia Bernal?' (sooo hot by the way!) i only found out who it was about a month ago. I was at my mates flat watching CoS drueling over jason Isaacs and we were quite drunk and we saw Riddle and i was just like 'Joe!!! It's Joe!! That's who you are! Not Gael Garica Bernal!!'

My mate spilt some of her wine! she was not happy.

No i didn't see them on Parky have you seen Rock Profile? It's the days before Little Britain, it's quite funny, they dress up as rock/pop stars and Jaimie Theakston interviews them. It's rather funny

You missed it??! OMG!!! Well, just for you....have a clicky here

Mmm......*drools*

*ahem*

Yeah, I bought the Rock Profile DVD this week - I loved the Marilyn and Boy George one!! Ooh, and the Eurythmics!! Some of them were a bit weird, but it was definitely worth the money.

My family think I'm going nuts though (and they're probably right) because I keep hearing lines from Little Britain everywhere - my mum asked me to pick up a Dora the Explorer memory game for my cousin while I was in Cardiff on Saturday and I just cracked up right in the middle of Queen Street... Took her a while to figure out what she's said that I found so hysterical. And I've taken to answering 'a-yeaas' a lot too...though I haven't quite gotten to the stage where I'm punctuating my sentences with a piccolo yet....

I really need to get out more....

Okay, now I have to see this show. For Louise to do an about face on it like that, it has to have something going for it...

I'll have to see if my usual source of british television has it in her collection yet...

On a side note, there's a little hamlet near the town my wife's from that's actually called Little Britain...

Cheers!

I'm afraid I remain to be convinced on Little Brittan, In many respects i think i just don't get the jokes in it and so all I'm left with are these scenarios which never seem to change, then again i wasn’t a huge fan of the office either, so its very possible that it’s just me.

I'll put it down to me living in Northern Ireland, we always seem to be a few decades behind the rest of Britain (or Ireland) when it comes to anything, so many be in twenty years or so, if i'm able to look at little Britain *touch wood* I’ll find it funny.

Don't worry, Shane, we're quite a bit behind things here as well... I still can't believe The Beatles broke up!!



Ok, not quite that bad... I've snuck a peek at some snippets from Little Britain. It reminded me quite a bit of a comedy group that was around in Canada a while back called The Frantics; it also reminded me a bit of Kids in the Hall.

I'll have to try and see more....

Cheers!

Well, it's like Ygraine said - it's exactly like Marmite!! You either love it or you hate it, I don't think there's an inbetween really.

It's definitely an acquired taste, I think...sometimes, it's as though I can see that they're trying to make a point about something, but when I hear them in interviews, they don't seem to have a huge hidden statement behind the sketches, so maybe I'm just looking too hard. I do that a lot...

You're not on your own with The Office though, Shane. I never found that particularly funny either, although Ricky Gervais is really funny in interviews so maybe it's just the show.

Most comedies are very individual things though and some of the more cult-y stuff like Monty Python, The Office, Red Dwarf and Little Britain are all acquired tastes. I guess everyone has a different sense of humour so different things will appeal to different people. It just so happens that my sense of humour is rather sick...

i don't like the office either!

Love monty python though, but that too is like marmite, i fnid it hilarious, one of the funniest (if not the funniest) things to grace out TV screens, but most of my friends hate it. Red Drawf's ace too, i was watching it not hald an hour ago.

I loved the scottish thing most of all!! I was mortified when they cut it from the new series *wails* I'm not insulted from LB at all, i mean, I'm overweight and i love the fatfighters sketches, and i come from Scotland and i love what they say about it! When they're sun bathing in the rain!

The thing is Hotels in the highlands in the middle of no where are like that! Some strange man with that smile....it's uber creepy

I love Monty Python! Red Dwarf was also a favourite of mine... Essentially, anything that's twisted is tops with me! My friends and I used to (well, ok...We still do...) go around acting out bits and pieces of the Holy Grail movie (alright!! The WHOLE THING!!)

Of course, who could forget Dead Parrots, Spam, the Miracle of Birth, and of course the Ministry of Silly Walks!

If Little Britain is anywhere that twisted and surreal, I'm going to love it!

Cheers!

Hi there,
I don't know which side I'm on here. On one hand, I like some of the jokes on Little Britain, but then they are rather offensive sometimes. I guess the producers were not trying to put a bad image on gay men/disabled people etc. but were just attempting to produce something the general British populace would enjoy.
Now, some people from the States might not understand some of the jokes (some British comedy is hard to grasp for non-natives and that includes myself), but in some cases they are slightly amusing. I do agree, however that some of the jokes ("but I'm the only gay in the village") do get very tedious. Little Britain is good to watch a few times, but then some of the jokes wear thin.
I do however, like Monty Python (my father is a bigger fan, though). I also like the Goodies. I don't know if many people over in the US have heard of the Goodies, but anyway.
I still can't get over the Holy Grail and its jokes. hehehe. And the Life of Brian, and so many more.

Hmm, still on the fence here,
Cheers,
Bella.

Yeah you really do have to be british to get Little Britain properly. I don't find Andy insulting and i work with disabled people (i don't know what they think of it though, i've never asked...) the fact that he can get out and run around isn't slagging disabled people, more the pure laziness of british people!

I mean, really who wouldn't want to be pushed around in a wheelchair or have one of those motorised scooters if you could get away with it, i know i would.

I wouldn't find daffyd tedious though, if any of your friends are gay you really do know what he's going on about. Loads are like that, 'Oh no ones gay...' When they are, they just aren't looking because they don't see us doing us Now like i said before, it's a complete exhageration of it, I have loads of gay mates, and lot's have boyfriends/girlfriends, but there's always that time in their life when they moan. then again we always moan that all the good ones are gay so....

British comedy is so much better than American comedy (no offence btw ) but in america it's really just gags and the like, which is nice to watch and lighthearted, but, well take friends for example, i have never been in stiches laughing at that, at best a chuckle. (i also have a hatred for friends, but that's a different story) With british comedy it's much more intellgent and subtle so, it's not in your face.

I wouldn't really say you have to be british to get british comedy, you just have to get used to it.

Well, my mum is disabled - she's not in a wheelchair, but she does have mobility problems - and she finds Lou and Andy absolutely hysterical! Actually, truth be told, it was she who converted me to Little Britain. If you read some of my early posts, you'll see that I was well and truly offended on her behalf at the suggestion that people who are disabled are "putting it on", or making it look worse than it is. I refused to watch it anymore until one day we were flicking around the channels, as you do () and there it was...I think it was the greatest 50 comedy sketches of all time, or something like that, and the winner was the Lou and Andy sketch where Lou takes him to the swimming pool? I sat there thinking...oh, poor mam...she's going to be so offended by this, but when she started laughing as Andy jumped in the pool, I thought...hey, you know...maybe this is pretty funny after all. So I watched it again, without the prissy prejudices and found that I haven't seen anything that made me laugh so hard since Blackadder

So, basically, if disabled people can see the funny side of it - which is just saying something about Andy rather than sweeping social statements about disabled people in general - then I don't see why anyone else should really take offence at it.

I mean, the Dafydd sketches are showing, if anything, that homosexuality is so prevalent that you have to have had your head in a hole for the past few years not to see how many gay people are out there. It's prefectly normal and nothing to get all angsty about and the sooner people lose their prejudices and just accept people for who and what they are, the better the world will be, you know?

Some of them are slightly...well...I don't know if there's a word for the "bitty" sketches... Or the vomiting tealadies, but I absolutely adore Marjorie's fatfighters classes, I don't find those repeatitive at all. I think they manage to keep them pretty fresh, even though they are, essentially, the same gags I guess.

Oh, and my tickets for the live show arrived yesterday... Yippee!!! Little Britain live in Cardiff, baby!!

Yeah, I suppose you're right. The producers are really just having a go at some people's laziness with the classic Andy-in-a-wheelchair thing. But I did love the scene at the pool. Very good. I also enjoy Marjorie's fat fighters classes too. "Choklit" and when the Indian lady said "Fish and Chips" and Marjorie wrote "Curry". That was a little cruel, but it was funny.
And you've made me see, Michelle, that the 'only gay in the village' thing does make people realise that there are heaps of homosexuals in the world nowadays.

well,

Season 3 was aired today, what did everyone think? I loved Ann on Stars in their eyes singing celine Dion, i couldn't help think 'Hmm Better than the original?' lol

Also, Tony Head in the....er nothings Hehehehehe!

Now I KNOW I have to see this show! Any show that spoofs Celine Dion has got to be seen, in my books! I cannot stand the woman!

She's from Quebec, and I remember her coming to the spotlight when Pope John-Paul came to Canada the first time. Then she started making it bigger and bigger... Throughout, she's maintained this image of the "poor little girl from the backwater town who is so overwhelmed by her success", at least when being interviewed on Quebec television. Then you see her on the telly in the US and she's got the total diva attitude full-on... Let's just say subtlety isn't her strong suit...

I'm looking high and low for these DVDs in Canada. No luck so far...

But I shall persevere!!

Little Britain now there a show I liked...And I mean that You see it didn’t offend me or anything its just at first it was funny and fresh but then it got a little repetitive with the sketches and I haven’t really watched it since. My favourite sketch was Andy and Lou but I can’t stand the sketch were a full grown man still drinks his mother breast milk, yuck! I really can’t watch that sketch but every other one I can.

Aah, Little Britain. A lot of people at school were going on about it hugely, saying it's really good and all, and so I put myself through a total of 3 episode thingy's, then gave it up as a bad job quite frankly. Parts were sort of funny, but not really. I don't find it at all offensive, just boring I suppose. I *like* to think that I have a good sense of humour, but I guess this show just doesn't float my boat.

hmmmm... Much controversy in the UK. I think sometimes they do take it a bit too far with some of their sketches, but most supply much hilarity.
But ispose you're always gonna get somke who like it, some lump it. It's their choice really.

Anyone from the UK should be proud that we have comedians such as David and Matt - they are legends! It's only having a laugh, and yeah, sometimes its racist, sometimes its sexist, but I think its about time there was a bit of fun stuff like that made. The government are so tight lipped about racism and all, and wouldn't you think they'd have banned it by now if they thought it was too insulting?? But they haven't, so in my eyes, it's brilliant, and I can't wait for the next series (I think they're making one anyway!)

My faves are definately Lou and Andy - especially the one when Andy pushes his social worker off a cliff! And when Lou introduces Andy to his Polish mate - brilliant!

I absolutely agree with Louise - about the Daffyd/homosexual thing! Its so hilarious, but if you look at what it really shows, you can see how oblivious he is to all the gays around him. Oh, and his outfits are just amazing!

And we can't forget Sebastian - 'Alright Prime Minister!' 'Wha'ever!' love it!